When I finally closed my eyes on Saturday night, after much coffee and Peeps and silliness, I saw filaments of light spinning together like fibers in my hands. That's how much spinning I did this weekend! It was great. I was so inspired by my second spinning class at Tempe Yarn and Fiber. To think six months ago I was thinking of selling my wheel and all my fiber. I am glad I gave it a second chance. My wheel and I are becoming good friends. We understand each other's limitations. It really can do way more than I thought it could, now that I have learned more.
I love spinning because it combines some of my favorite aspects of knitting, color and texture. I am not so much about pattern, not into the binary nature of knit and purl, but the way things blend.
Speaking of blending, I learned how to hand blend fibers. This was very exciting and liberating. I did not want to purchase or mess with hand cards, and I was thrilled to know that many experienced spinners don't, either. That doesn't mean you can't create beautiful hand blended fibers. Woo!
This is my baby: most of the hard work was done by someone else. This is a Spritely Goods bat purchased at TYF to which I hand-added little bits of raspberry wool that I dyed ages ago. This is one of my favorite color combinations ever and I loooove the result, with the subtle sparkle that was already present in the bat. I will be making more of this.
You also notice this is plyed, Navajo plied, to be exact. Terry likes to make everyone feel good about taking to things right away. She told me I had natural aptitude for Navajo plying, which I just think is the coolest thing in the world now. It's like crocheting with your fingers to make plyed yarn, awesome. I love the effect it creates.
Here are a trifecta of yarns that I created recently. One of these you may have seen before, as I plied it up after my first spinning class in January. These all contain some of the same Hello Yarn hand painted fiber.
From the top: 1. Navajo plied. yay! 2. plied with supahsoft merino, dig those microns! 3. Hand blended solid pink and orange with a bit of the red from Adrian's. Also Navajo plied, I can't stop.
There's a missing 4th skien that is traditional two-ply, where did I put that? It was also born in January. I still have another 4 oz or so of this colorway, so I might end up making a bunch of related yarn for a shawl or some such.
How about more orange yarn! Never fear, I am here. Some solid Copper Moose BFL plied with self striping commercial sock yarn featured in these socks, which now live in MN with my grandmother. Where all wool socks should retire.
Lastly, years ago I was playing with Kool Aid and ended up with the most unnatural blue. I never touched it, but now that I can hand blend, I added some deep purple and some purple sparkles and we'll see what happens! I'm not really a little blue girl, but I like this better than the solid.
After the class, I spoiled myself with some dyed fushia locks, multi-color firestar, and some coral merino.
Next time: Weaving photos galore! The placemats are drying now on the shower rod, out of reach of the kitties. How I learned to stop worrying and cut the warp. And wash the fabric! Crazy stuff. And maybe Omar will show you my new scarf.
